British mother found stabbed to death outside home in rural France
A British woman has been found stabbed to death outside her guest house in a mediaeval French village.
Karen Carter, 65, was discovered 'collapsed and unconscious' near her car in Trémolat, east of Bordeaux, on Tuesday evening.
A murder investigation has been opened into the mother of four's death.
Sylvie Martins-Guedes, the Bergerac prosecutor, disclosed that Mrs Carter had sustained multiple stab wounds to her chest, groin, arm and leg.
In a statement released on Thursday, Ms Martins-Guedes said that the victim was found by a friend with whom she had been in a relationship for several weeks.
'They had spent the evening together in Trémolat with friends and then returned to the victim's home, whom he said had arrived only about 10 minutes before her.
'He discovered her collapsed and unconscious near her vehicle with bleeding wounds, and he immediately called emergency services, administering first aid himself.'
Investigators said that the savagery of the attack testified to 'particular violence' and demonstrated 'a desire to kill'.
The friend was questioned by police but later released without charge, French media reported.
Police have launched a manhunt to find her killer. A murder weapon has not yet been retrieved.
Prosecutors have not ruled out the theory of a robbery gone wrong and said that 'no hypothesis is being favoured'.
Mrs Carter is understood to have lived in the Dordogne for the past 10 years and ran two upmarket guest houses.
She was also a midfielder for the over-50s Queens of Football (Reines du Foot) team that had competed in the Grannies International Football Tournament in South Africa last month.
'Everyone is in shock, it's horrible, Karen was super helpful, she was kindness personified,' her teammates told local media.
In a tribute on Facebook, a spokesman for the club wrote: 'We are deeply saddened by the sudden passing of Karen, our friend and Queen of Football, who leaves a great void in our hearts.
'All our thoughts go out to her loved ones.'
Anne Calvert, who runs the Dordogne Chippy, a mobile food van in Trémolat, told the Telegraph that Mrs Carter was a 'lovely person'.
She added: 'She was a regular customer here, we are really sad that this has happened.'
Another resident described her as 'a delightful, energetic person who got on with everybody'.
They added: 'Nobody can understand how this could have happened in a peaceful place like this. We are all keeping our doors locked. It is deeply worrying.'
An online CV for Mrs Carter states that she previously ran a guest house in the city of East London in South Africa before moving to Nouvelle-Aquitaine in January 2015.
'She used to travel back and forth to South Africa but has been more present here since the beginning of the year,' one neighbour told Sud Ouest, a French newspaper.
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